Method, computer program and base station for prediction based allocation of processing resources in a non-serving base station

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a base station and a method in a mobile telecommunication network for allocating and de-allocating uplink base station processing resources to a mobile terminal. The base station are adapted to communicate to a mobile terminal on an uplink channel supporting macro-diversity, and the base station is adapted to be a non-serving base-station without control of the resource allocation to the mobile-terminal. The base station comprises means for predicting a likelihood of successful decoding of a future transmission, and means for allocating or de-allocating processing resources based on said prediction.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to arrangements in a mobile communicationnetwork. In particular, the present invention relates to arrangementsfor allocating processing resources in radio base station to be used fora mobile terminal in the uplink direction.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns a base station in a mobiletelecommunication access network such as the UMTS terrestrial radioaccess network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is illustrated in FIG. 1 and comprisesat least one Radio Network System 100 connected to the Core Network (CN)200. The CN is connectable to other networks such as the Internet, othermobile networks e.g. GSM systems and fixed telephony networks. The RNS100 comprises at least one Radio Network Controller 110. Furthermore,the respective RNC 110 controls a plurality of Node-Bs 120,130 that areconnected to the RNC by means of the Iub interface 140. Each Node B,also referred to as base station, covers one or more cells and isarranged to serve the User Equipment (UE) 300 within said cell. Finally,the UE 300, also referred to as mobile terminal, is connected to one ormore Node Bs over the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA)based radio interface 150.

3GPP Release 6 has recently been updated with the “Enhanced Uplink”concept, which includes a new uplink transport channel, E-DCH. A newscheduler located in the Node B that performs transmission resourcemanagement based on the utilisation of the allocated radio resources isintroduced as an alternative or complement to the existing packetscheduler located in the RNC. Combined with fast L1 HARQ schemes, theproposed algorithm can provide a cell throughput gain. Since the packetscheduler functionality is located in the Node B, a fast schedulingconcept is introduced. Fast scheduling from the Node B denotes thepossibility for the Node B to control when a UE is transmitting and atwhat data rate. The Node Bs can assign scheduling grants to the UEs,where these grants are based on both the transmission resourceavailability and the requested need for transmission resources, i.e. thescheduling requests from the UEs.

HARQ is a more advanced form of an ARQ retransmission scheme. Inconventional ARQ schemes the receiver checks if a packet is receivedcorrectly. If it is not received correctly, the erroneous packet isdiscarded and a retransmission is requested. With HARQ the erroneouspacket is not discarded. Instead the packet is kept and combined with aresult of the retransmission. That implies that even if both the firsttransmission and the retransmission are erroneous, they may be combinedto a correct packet. This means that fewer retransmissions are required.

On E-DCH the Node B scheduler has no direct information about the datathat to be transmitted from the UEs. Thus the UEs are required toindicate the amount of data available, the priority of the data, thetransmitter power available etc. to the Node B through schedulingrequests. When the Node B has received the scheduling request from theUE and has decided to schedule the UE based on the received schedulingrequests, it may transmit a grant, also denoted scheduling grantindicator herein, to the UE, indicating the amount of data or actuallywith which power the UE is allowed to transmit.

A particular aspect of relevance for the present invention is the factthat enhanced uplink, i.e. the E-DCH supports soft-handover.Soft-handover implies that a UE is connected to multiple base stationssimultaneously. Thus, a UE in soft handover is power-controlled frommultiple cells, and supported by data reception at multiple cells (i.e.macro diversity is utilized). Power control from multiple cells isneeded to limit the inter-cell interference, while macro-diversity gainscan be achieved by receiving data at multiple cells. FIG. 2 illustratesa scenario when a UE is in soft handover in a UMTS network as shown inFIG. 1. The network comprises base stations connected to a RNC 208,wherein the RNC 208 is further connected to a CN 210. The UE 202 isconnected to the base stations 204 and 206 simultaneously.

In soft-handover in enhanced uplink, one cell is selected by the RNC toact as the Serving Cell, and the Node B in control of the Serving Cellis here denoted the Serving E-DCH Node B. The cells connected to thesame UE is referred to as the E-DCH active set. The Serving E-DCH Node Bcontrols the transmission resources of the UE, i.e. it is allowed togrant requested transmission resources. The Non-serving E-DCH Node Bs(i.e. Node Bs not in control of the serving cell) are not able tomonitor the grants given by the E-DCH serving Node B and has thus noknowledge of the granted transmission resources. The Serving E-DCH NodeB should typically be the Node B with the strongest uplink from the UE,but the E-DCH serving Node B may also be chosen differently. Onealternative is to tie the E-DCH serving cell to the downlink HS-DSCHserving cell. Tying the E-DCH serving cell selection to the HS-DSCHserving cell may increase the likelihood that the strongest uplink inthe active set is governed by a non-serving E-DCH Node B.

The present invention considers problems arising from such configurationthat may result in that the uplink of the serving Node B is not thestrongest link in the active set, i.e. another Node B of the active setreceives the strongest signal from the UE in soft handover.

The E-DCH scheduling is mainly controlled from the serving E-DCH Node B,which can assign Absolute Grants (AG) to the UE's. These Absolute Grantslimit the maximum transmission resources, e.g. power, the UE is allowedto use. Within this restriction, the final selection of data-rate isthen performed by the UE itself, based on the data available in itsbuffers and on the available UE power. Alternatively, the serving E-DCHNode B can use Relative Grants to control the transmission rates of theUEs. The Relative Grants from the serving E-DCH cell can take threevalues: Up, Hold, and Down. However, the non serving Node Bs do notreceive any information of limitations indicated by the absolute grantor relative grant from the serving E-DCH cell and is therefore not awareof the future processing resource need of the UE.

The scheduling control from non-serving E-DCH Node Bs is mainly intendedfor inter-cell interference suppression and system stability control.The Relative Grants that can be sent from the non-serving E-DCH Node Bstherefore take only two values: Hold and Down. With these relativegrants, a Node B can reduce the interference contribution from UEs,which are not primarily controlled from this Node B.

Thus, the present invention deals with the processing resourceallocation problem of the Node B that depends on that the non-servingNode Bs are not aware of the amount of transmission resources that isgranted from the Node B controlling the serving cell.

From a Node B internal hardware allocation point of view, there is asignificant difference between the serving E-DCH Node B and thenon-serving Node Bs. The serving E-DCH Node B has information about thescheduling grant sent to the UE and therefore knowledge about themaximum amount of hardware resources needed for processing transmissionsfrom this particular UE. However, a Node B that is not in control of theServing E-DCH cell has much more limited means to predict the processingresources needed for the UE in question. This resource allocationproblem is further complicated by the fact that the Node B processingresource allocation typically takes some time (e.g. 10-50 ms), meaningthat a predictive processing resource allocation would be necessary toensure that the reception of a transmission from a UE can besuccessfully completed.

Below are two existing solutions to this problem described:

According to a first example, processing resources are over-allocatedand rate-limitation of terminals in soft handover may also occur. Inthis brute-force solution, sufficient Node B processing resources forthe highest possible data rate are always allocated from the non-servingNode B. To reduce the need of hardware resources, the maximum bit rateof UEs in soft-handover may have to be limited.

According to a second example, the non-serving Node B couldunder-allocate processing resources, knowing that it may not be able todecode the first few Transmission Time Intervals (TTIs) of a UEtransmission, in case the UE starts at a rate higher than estimated.Once the UE starts to transmit at a high data rate, the non-serving NodeB can reallocate processing resources to this UE, assuming that it willcontinue to transmit for some time. Non-serving Node Bs may also try tolisten to the scheduling requests from the UE to the serving cell to getsome information about the amount of transmission resources the UE mayneed.

Both approaches are, however, equipped with obvious drawbacks:

The solution according to the first alternative may result in lowutilization of available hardware resources, costly deployments with anecessity to deploy large pools of Node B processing resources and/ortight bit-rate restrictions for users in soft handover. This is neitherdesirable nor acceptable.

The opportunistic approach in the solution according to the secondexample may result in loss of the macro-diversity gain, since the firstfew HARQ transmission attempts at a non-serving Node B are lost. Inaddition, the second solution may interact with Outer-LoopPower-Control, which typically is operated on the number of HARQtransmissions. An increase in the number of HARQ transmissions due tohardware limitations may result in an unnecessary increase in the uplinkSIR target with a capacity loss as a consequence.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Thus the object of the present invention is to achieve a method andarrangements for allocating base station processing resources for amobile terminal in the uplink direction when the radio base station isnot aware of the granted transmission resources of that mobile terminal.

This object is achieved by the method and arrangements defined by theindependent claims.

Preferred embodiments are defined by the dependent claims.

The method according to the present invention for allocating andde-allocating uplink base station processing resources to a mobileterminal, wherein the mobile terminal and the base station are adaptedto communicate on an uplink channel supporting macro-diversity, and thebase station is a non-serving base-station without control of thetransmission resource allocation to the mobile-terminal, comprising thesteps of predicting a likelihood of successful decoding of a futuretransmission, and allocating or de-allocating processing resources basedon said prediction, makes it possible to allocate base stationprocessing resources for a mobile terminal in the uplink direction whenthe radio base station is not aware of the granted transmissionresources of that mobile terminal.

The base station according to the present invention for allocating andde-allocating uplink base station processing resources to a mobileterminal, wherein the base station are adapted to communicate to amobile terminal on an uplink channel supporting macro-diversity, and thebase station is adapted to be a non-serving base-station without controlof the transmission resource allocation to the mobile-terminal,comprising means for predicting a likelihood of successful decoding of afuture transmission, and means for allocating or de-allocatingprocessing resources based on said prediction, makes it possible toallocate base station processing resources for a mobile terminal in theuplink direction when the radio base station is not aware of the grantedtransmission resources of that mobile terminal.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a prediction of thelikelihood of future transmission is also performed.

According to a further embodiment, prediction of the bit rate of afuture transmission is performed prior to the allocation andde-allocation and the allocation or de-allocation of processingresources is based on said prediction.

The likelihood of successful decoding may be determined based on ameasurement of a received signal strength at the radio base station, onuplink inner loop power control commands, on the mobility of the mobileterminal, or on monitoring the history of successful decoding in thebase station. The mobility of the mobile terminal may be determined bydoppler measurements. According to one embodiment the prediction of thelikelihood for a transmission is based on an analysis of traffichistory.

According to further embodiments, the base station processing resourcesare allocated if the difference of a targeted uplink signal strength andthe measured signal strength is less than a defined first threshold andthe radio base station processing resources are de-allocated if thedifference of a targeted uplink signal strength and the measured signalstrength exceeds a defined second threshold.

According to yet further embodiment, the prediction relating to thefuture transmission or the bit-rate of the future transmission isperformed by monitoring scheduling requests from the mobile terminal,monitoring indications of transport formats, monitoring of trafficpattern of the mobile station, or monitoring the network load.

An advantage with the present invention is that the processing resourcesof Node Bs can reach a high level of utilisation. Node B processingresources are allocated to terminals for which a macro-diversity gaincan be expected.

A further advantage is that it results in a less expensive deployment,due to lower requirements on hardware equipment.

A further advantage is that a higher throughput in soft handover isachieved and macro diversity gain in soft handover is achieved also forhigh bit rates.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a UMTS network wherein the present invention may beimplemented.

FIG. 2 illustrates soft-handover in a UMTS network.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the method according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodimentsof the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied inmany different forms and should not be construed as limited to theembodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided sothat this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fullyconvey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

The object of the present invention is achieved by a method and a basestation in a mobile telecommunication network for allocating andde-allocating uplink base station processing resources to a mobileterminal. The base station are adapted to communicate to a mobileterminal on an uplink channel supporting macro-diversity, and the basestation is adapted to be a non-serving base-station without control ofthe transmission resource allocation to the mobile-terminal, e.g. anon-serving E-DCH Node B. The base station comprises according to thepresent invention means for predicting a likelihood of successfuldecoding of a future transmission, and means for allocating orde-allocating processing resources based on said prediction.

Thus, the present invention is based on a prediction of the likelihoodthat a non-serving base-station without control of the transmissionresource allocation to the mobile-terminal will need, and will be ableto decode the transmitted data in the situation when the non-servingNode B has close to equal or even better reception possibilities thanthe serving Node B. Thus this type of predictive Node B processingresource allocation is needed in cases when the likelihood of successfuldecoding is high at the non-serving Node B. De-allocation of reservedprocessing resources can be performed when the likelihood of successfuldecoding is low.

In the described embodiments below, the uplink channel supportingmacro-diversity is exemplified with an E-DCH and the non-servingbase-station without control of the transmission resource allocation tothe mobile-terminal is exemplified with non-serving E-DCH Node B. Itshould however be noted that other uplink channels supportingmacro-diversity and hence other non-serving base stations may be used inthe present invention.

The set of cells that carry the E-DCH for one UE, the E-DCH active set,is governed by the RNC. The RNC also decides which cell should be theServing E-DCH cell. In principle, it would be desirable to always assignthe cell with the strongest uplink to the Serving E-DCH Cell. This issimply because the likelihood of successful de-coding is highest in theNode B receiving the strongest uplink signal and the Node B of theserving cell has full control of allocated grants. It should be notedthat serving cell is also referred to as serving Node B wherein itshould be understood that the serving node B controls the transmissionresources of the serving cell.

However, rapid fluctuations in signal propagation and load conditionsmay result in biased situations, when the uplink signal strength isstronger in a cell not served by the Node B in control of the E-DCHserving cell. Changing the Serving E-DCH cell is a much slower process,meaning the reception quality may occasionally be much better in a cellgoverned by a non-serving Node B.

In addition, it should be noted that the choice of Serving E-DCH cellmay be based on criteria, which are less correlated with the receiveduplink signal strength. For example, it may be desirable to tie theServing E-DCH cell to the High Speed Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH)serving cell. In cases when the uplink and downlink propagation andinterference/load conditions are different, it could again happen thatthe uplink reception is better in a cell supported by a Node B not incontrol of the Serving E-DCH cell.

It is therefore highly desirable to identify situations when the uplinkreception quality in a non-serving E-DCH Node B is high, and predictiveprocessing resource allocation of Node B processing resources would behighly desirable. Similarly, it is equally desirable to release Node Bprocessing resources, in cases when it is identified that successfuldecoding in the Node B would be very unlikely, i.e. that any gain frommacro-diversity from this Node B is unlikely. Such released processingresources may preferably be used for other purposes.

Thus, the present invention relates to methods and arrangements forpredictive allocation and de-allocation of processing resources in abase station of a network that supports enhanced uplink, i.e. comprisesthe E-DCH and soft-handover in the uplink. The predictive processingresource allocation and de-allocation is according the present inventionbased on prediction of the likelihood of successful decoding of a futuretransmission. The prediction of the likelihood for successful decodingmay be based on a received signal strength, e.g. the offset of themeasured SIR value to a SIR target of the uplink Dedicated PhysicalControl Channel (DPCCH), inner-loop power control commands, and/orDoppler measurements. This is further described below.

The outer-loop power control of the uplink is based on a referenceSignal-to-Interference-Ratio (SIR) target for the uplink DPCCH channel.This SIR target is distributed from the RNC to all cells in the activeset, and each Node B strives to keep the measured SIR at the SIR target.This control is conducted by sending binary (“UP/DOWN”) inner loop powercontrol commands (TPC commands) from the Node Bs to the terminal, wherethese commands demand the terminal either to increase or decrease itstransmit power. However, the terminal is allowed to increase itstransmission power only if no Node B in the active set is transmitting“DOWN” TPC command.

Since the uplink propagation and interfering load conditions from aterminal to different cells in general are different, it follows thattypically only one cell in the active set receives the DedicatedPhysical Control Channel (DPCCH) at the targeted SIR level. This cell,and other cells which have the measured SIR close to the SIR target,have the best requisites for successful coding of the uplink. Therefore,Node Bs that govern cells for which the measured SIR is close to the SIRtarget, should perform predictive allocation of processing resourcesaccording to the present invention. One implementation could include anintegrator summing up the SIR error during a pre-defined period. If thesignal strength e.g. the SIR error is less than a pre-defined value,then processing resources are allocated. If the SIR error exceedsanother threshold, then the allocated processing resources arede-allocated.

Thus, the processing resources from the radio base station may beallocated based on the power control commands sent from the radiobase-station for governing the terminal transmission power such that,during a monitoring period, the fraction of commands requesting themobile terminal to decrease its transmission power, exceeds apre-defined threshold. Accordingly, the processing resources from theradio base station may be de-allocated based on the power controlcommands sent from the radio base-station for governing the terminaltransmission power, such that during a monitoring period, the fractionof commands requesting the terminal to decrease its transmission powerremains below a pre-defined threshold.

According another embodiment, the mobility of a terminal is analyzed,because there is a greater likelihood that propagation conditions of aterminal showing high Doppler will change, meaning that the a weak cellmay suddenly turn into the strongest one. Thus, predictive processingresource allocation according to the present invention of UEs showinghigh Doppler is desirable.

In a further embodiment of the present invention the likelihood forsuccessful decoding is based on monitoring the history of successfuldecoding in the radio base station.

According to further aspects of the present invention, the likelihoodfor successful decoding is dependent on the likelihood of a futuretransmission. Moreover, the processing resource allocation may alsodepend on a prediction of the bit-rate of future transmission. Hence thelikelihood of a future transmission and the bit-rate of futuretransmission are predicted according to embodiments of the presentinvention. The prediction of the likelihood of a future transmission andthe bit-rate of future transmission may be based on analysis ofScheduling requests, analysis of traffic pattern (i.e. the de-facto useby the UE, which is constrained both by grants given from the servingcell, and constrained by the UE power) and analysis of cell load. Thisis further described below.

A different way of identifying the uplink signal strength is to monitorthe TPC commands sent from the non-serving Node B. In WCDMA, the binaryTPC commands are transmitted with a frequency of 1500 Hz. In case theTPC commands during a monitored period from a non-serving Node B includecommands for decreasing (“DOWN”) the UE transmission power, it meansthat the uplink reception quality is relatively good in a cell governedby this Node B. Consequently the Node B should allocate hardwareresources in cases when such events are detected. One possibility toquantify this aspect is measure the fraction of “Down”-commands during adefined time-window, and if this fraction exceeds a certain threshold,then processing resources are allocated from this Node B. Similarly, ifthe measured fraction of “Down” commands is less than another threshold,the allocated processing resources are released.

One way to predict the future transmission rate of the UE may beperformed based on passed activity. Thus, the amount of hardware that isneeded in a non-serving cell can be predicted. This prediction can bebased on e.g. scheduling requests, out-band Transport Format CombinationIndications (TFCI) received in passed time, and/or the cell or networkload level. Scheduling requests gives “hints” about the transmissiondemand of the UE, and TFCI provides a possibility to monitor thede-facto UE use constrained both by UE transmission need, UE power andgrants from the serving cell and (other) non-serving cells.

The current network load hints of how much processing resources a singleUE may be allocated. In a highly loaded net, each user will typicallynot receive very large grants. However, in an empty net, a single UE mayramp up to considerable high bit-rates rather quickly.

This is further illustrated by the following example. Assume a networkdeployment and a management of the cells, such that a UE is in SoHo in30% of the network area.

Assume for simplicity, that each UE is having two cells in its activeset, where the two cells are governed by different Node Bs. One of thetwo links for each UE is assumed to be stronger than the other. Of 100UEs in a network, 30 users may be in Soft Handover creating a total of130 radio links in the uplink to serve these UEs (70 for UEs in non-Softhandover, and 2*30 for UEs in Soft Handover).

First is the likelihood of successful decoding considered: Suppose thatthe peak-allocation of hardware for a single link takes one resourceunit. Without the present invention, the base stations must allocate 130resource units. Regarding the likelihood of successful decoding, only100 resource units need to be allocated, since the hardware is ideallyonly allocated to the base station controlling the strongest link. Thus,in this example, the reduction in processing resource need forpeak-allocation is 23%. [NOTE: The relative savings can be much higher,since the base station would typically not peak-allocate processingresources for its served UEs, i.e. the 100 radio links that are fullycontrolled by the Serving Node B.]

Secondly is the likelihood and bit-rate of future transmissionconsidered: Hardware constraints typically occur when the network isloaded and the uplinks are strictly rate-controlled. By performinghardware allocation as a function of the UE and network load, it can beexpected that an additional reduction of hardware need (relative to theconservative peak-allocation strategy above) could be in the order of50-60%.

The present invention also relates to a method in a base station of amobile telecommunication network for allocating and de-allocating uplinkbase station processing resources to a mobile terminal, wherein themobile terminal and the base station are adapted to communicate on anuplink channel supporting macro-diversity, and the base station is anon-serving base-station without control of the transmission resourceallocation to the mobile-terminal. The method is illustrated by the flowchart in FIG. 3. The method comprises the steps:

301. Predict a likelihood of successful decoding of a futuretransmission.

302. Allocate or de-allocate processing resources based on saidprediction.

The method may be implemented by a computer program product. Such acomputer program product may be directly loadable into a processingmeans in a computer in a base station, comprising the software codemeans for performing the steps of the method.

The computer program product may be stored on a computer usable medium,comprising readable program for causing a processing means in a computerwithin a base station, to control the execution of the steps of themethod. Although the description focuses on 3G, Enhanced Uplink, thepresent invention can be generally applicable to other systemssupporting macro-diversity in the uplink.

In the drawings and specification, there have been disclosed typicalpreferred embodiments of the invention and, although specific terms areemployed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and notfor purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being set forthin the following claims.

1. A method in a non-serving base station of a mobile telecommunicationnetwork for allocating and de-allocating uplink base station processingresources to a mobile terminal as part of supporting soft handover inthe network, wherein the mobile terminal and the non-serving basestation are adapted to communicate on an uplink channel supportingmacro-diversity, and wherein the non-serving base station has no controlof the transmission resource allocation to the mobile terminal, themethod comprises performing the following steps using the non-servingbase station: predicting a likelihood of successful decoding of a futuretransmission from the mobile terminal to the non-serving base station;and, based on said prediction, allocating or de-allocating processingresources of the non-serving base station for the mobile terminal. 2.The method according to claim 1, wherein the predicting step comprisesthe further step of: predicting the likelihood of future transmissionfrom the mobile terminal.
 3. The method according to claim 1, whereinthe allocating or de-allocating step is preceded by the steps of: thenon-serving base station predicting the bit rate of said futuretransmission; and, the non-serving base station allocating orde-allocating processing resources based on said prediction.
 4. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the likelihood of successfuldecoding is determined based on a measurement of a received signalstrength at the non-serving base station.
 5. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the likelihood of successful decoding is determinedbased on uplink inner loop power control commands.
 6. The methodaccording to claim 5, wherein processing resources of the non-servingbase station are allocated/de-allocated if the fraction of power controlcommands requesting the mobile terminal to decrease its transmissionpower, during a monitoring period, exceeds/remains below a pre-definedthreshold.
 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the likelihood ofsuccessful decoding is determined based on the mobility of the mobileterminal.
 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the mobility ofthe mobile terminal is determined by doppler measurements.
 9. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the likelihood of successful decoding isdetermined based on monitoring the history of successful decoding in thenon-serving base station.
 10. The method according to claim 2, whereinthe prediction of the likelihood for a transmission is based on ananalysis of traffic history.
 11. The method according to claim 4,wherein the processing resources of the non-serving base station areallocated if the difference of a targeted uplink signal strength and themeasured signal strength is less than a defined threshold.
 12. Themethod according to claim 4, wherein the processing resources of thenon-serving base station are de-allocated if the difference of atargeted uplink signal strength and the measured signal strength exceedsa defined threshold.
 13. The method according to claim 2, wherein theprediction relating to the future transmission or the bit-rate of thefuture transmission comprises the step of: monitoring schedulingrequests from the mobile terminal.
 14. The method according to claim 2,wherein the prediction relating to the future transmission or thebit-rate of the future transmission comprises the step of: monitoringindications of transport formats.
 15. The method according to claim 2,wherein the prediction relating to the future transmission or thebit-rate of the future transmission comprises the step of: monitoring oftraffic pattern of the mobile terminal.
 16. The method according toclaim 2, wherein the prediction relating to the future transmission orthe bit-rate of the future transmission comprises the step of:monitoring the network load.
 17. A non-serving base station in a mobiletelecommunication network for allocating and de-allocating uplink basestation processing resources to a mobile terminal as part of supportingsoft handover in the network, wherein the non-serving base station isadapted to communicate to the mobile terminal on an uplink channelsupporting macro-diversity, and wherein the non-serving base station hasno control of the transmission resource allocation to themobile-terminal, the non-serving base station is configured to performthe following: predict a likelihood of successful decoding of a futuretransmission from the mobile terminal to the non-serving base station;and, based on said prediction, allocate or de-allocate processingresources of the non-serving base station for the mobile terminal. 18.The non-serving base station according to claim 17, further configuredto predict the likelihood of future transmission from the mobileterminal.
 19. The non-serving base station according to claim 17,further configured to predict the bit rate of said future transmissionand allocate or de-allocate processing resources based on saidprediction.
 20. The non-serving base station according to claim 17,further configured to determine likelihood of successful decoding bymeasuring a received signal strength at the non-serving base station.21. The non-serving base station according to claim 17, wherein thelikelihood of successful decoding is determined based on uplink innerloop power control commands.
 22. The non-serving base station accordingto claim 21, further configured to allocate or de-allocate processingresources thereof if the fraction of power control commands requestingthe mobile terminal to decrease its transmission power, during amonitoring period, exceeds/remains below a pre-defined threshold. 23.The non-serving base station according to claim 17, wherein thelikelihood of successful decoding is determined based on the mobility ofthe mobile terminal.
 24. The non-serving base station according to claim23, wherein the mobility of the mobile terminal is determined by dopplermeasurements.
 25. The non-serving base station according to claim 17,wherein the likelihood of successful decoding is determined based onmonitoring the history of successful decoding in the non-serving basestation.
 26. The non-serving base station according to claim 18, whereinthe prediction of the likelihood for a transmission is based on ananalysis of traffic history.
 27. The non-serving base station accordingto claim 20, wherein the non-serving base station is configured toallocate processing resources thereof if the difference of a targeteduplink signal strength and the measured signal strength is less than adefined threshold.
 28. The non-serving base station according to claim20, wherein the non-serving base station is configured to de-allocateprocessing resources thereof if the difference of a targeted uplinksignal strength and the measured signal strength exceeds a definedthreshold.
 29. The non-serving base station according to claim 18,further configured to monitor scheduling requests from the mobileterminal.
 30. The non-serving base station according to claim 18,further configured to monitor indications of transport formats.
 31. Thenon-serving base station according to claim 18, further configured tomonitor traffic pattern of the mobile terminal.
 32. The non-serving basestation according to claim 18, further configured to monitor the networkload.